Leaving information technology (IT) management positions voluntarily can have adverse effects on productivity and knowledge retention among ethnic minorities. Despite organizational efforts to leverage diversity across leadership positions and to comply with governmental laws that protect ethnic minorities from discriminatory practices, ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in IT management positions. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to extrapolate from ethnic minority mid-level managers a broad understanding of the dynamics of why they leave IT positions voluntarily for other occupations. Organizational leaders could devise retention and promotion strategies based on the current research in which personal and organizational factors are identified as influential in ethnic minority middle managers' decisions to leave IT positions. Transcriptions from the one-on-one, audio tape-recorded interviews of 11 purposively sampled African American and Asian middle managers yielded a descriptive understanding of middle managers' experiences. Data organization, analysis, and synthesis from middle managers' experiences followed Moutsakas's modified van Kaam method. The overarching themes extracted were ethnic minority middle managers left IT positions, in fulfillment of human needs, to obtain positions with more power and for more fair advantages. A recommendation is that corporate IT leaders become cognizant of cultural practices that are inhibiting ethnic minority managers' opportunities for advancement and devise strategies against barriers to career advancement across corporate positions. Future research on voluntary turnover of ethnic minorities from IT management positions could contribute further insight into the phenomenon. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]